Sam finally has his cornerstone, he's surrounded by friends and family, he's even bonding with Prince Justin (kinda), and life is great---until his grandmother shows up and tells him he's part of a prophecy and has a destiny involving the five dragons of Verania and an evil man of shadows. Sam doesn't want to part of a destiny, but he'll do whatever it takes to keep his loved ones safe... if he can figure out what the right thing to do is.

*I received an ecopy of this book from the publisher. This has not influenced my review.*

More silly, absurd humor.

More ridiculously inappropriate sex talk in which no sexual kink is safe from being mentioned.

More quirky, sassy characters.

More adorable friendships and family and relationships among people who love each other like crazy.

More dragons that are nothing like you’d expect a dragon to be.

More magic unlike anything anyone in Verania has ever seen before.

But this book also had secrets coming to light. And heaviness. And seriousness. And intensity. And moments that threatened to make me teary-eyed, whether from sadness or worry or touchingness, I’m not even sure. It was still a funny book, yes, but not quite in the same way that the first one was.

On a related note, I don’t tend to like reading about prophecies, but, in this case, it didn’t really bother me because, in a way, the prophecy wasn’t really the point of the book. Just like in the first book, it was the friendships and relationships and love that were the focus. And also just like in the first book, I found myself once again able to firmly stand by Sam and his decisions; I was so happy when he finally told Vadoma he had enough of her crap about prophecies and destiny and all that because I was on the same page. Don’t listen to them, Sam. You do everything you can to keep your loved ones safe and well, Sam. Team Sam FTW! Or as Tiggy so eloquently put it…

“HaveHeart forever, motherfuckers.”

Also, I just have to say that I love how healthy the sex part of Sam and Ryan’s relationship is. Everything is so consensual and communicative and open-minded, so they explore their kinks and give each other what they need, and that is what’s sexy. (And the rest of their relationship is great too, of course.)

So overall, this was another great book with silly humor and quirky characters and loving relationships, but also more serious and intense moments and emotions that is probably going to tug on your heart strings even more than the first book did.

Once upon a time, the wizard’s apprentice Sam of Wilds got his happily ever after in the arms of his cornerstone, Knight Commander Ryan Foxheart. A year has passed, and while Sam’s been captured five or six more times since then, things are pretty great. His parents are happy, Gary and Tiggy still eat sass for breakfast, Randall is somehow alive despite being older than the gods, the King rules with a gentle hand, Kevin the dragon is as gross as ever, Morgan sighs a lot, Ryan continues to be dashing and immaculate, and Sam is close to convincing Prince Justin they will be best friends forever.

Life is good.

Until it’s not.

Because Vadoma, the leader of the Gypsy clan and Sam’s grandmother, has come to the City of Lockes with a dire prophecy written in the stars: a man of shadows is rising and will consume the world unless Sam faces his destiny and gathers the five dragons of Verania at his side.

It seems like this is a sequel that delivers on all the promise of the first book, with some added emotional weight to it. Pretty awesome, from the sounds of it! I’m fully convinced that I need to read this series now. Sam sounds like such a good hero!

This sounds like you really enjoyed reading this sequel and that it was a solid continuation for you. Overall, I’m really liking how sweet the romance is sounding. They seem like an adorable couple. And it’s definitely a plus that Sam makes good choices. It makes protagonist’s who a lot more likable when they aren’t off making dumb decisions.